CIA on the 2004 Bin Laden tapes

[Bluefire]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200610210003#20061103-2

This is the first time that I've seen someone of prominence proposing the view that the Bin Laden tape was intended to help Bush, not Kerry. Apparently its the CIA which started this view.

It wouldn't surprise me though. Wilsonian foreign policy initiatives do cause quite the backlash in countries and regions where its been attempted, just like what we're doing right now.

[Sutterkane]

rofl,

NICE site.

[Bluefire]

Yeah, they're pretty liberal and most of the stuff they say is lame.

I did think it was interesting though considering the journalist they are getting it from.

[xero]

I could see statements by Bin Laden helping people of either party, depending on what they use to spin.

Here's what the Democrats will tell you:

Most scholars on terrorism will tell you that extremists of all types are frequent practitioners of the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, which is one of their most powerful tools of recruitment.

Bin Laden spent years in Saudi Arabia, Africa, and Central Asia telling people that America was evil, its political interests Satanic, and our trade methodology imperialistic.

His organization and execution of 9/11 sparked our invasion and occupation of two foreign nations, one of which had nothing to do with the attack, resulting in the deaths of thousands of civilians. We've written all sorts of domestic legislation that strips us of our own civil liberties to 'fight the terrorists.' We've taken away people's fundamental human rights. We torture people in secret 'black' prisons all over the world, many of which we've come to find out are innocent. We've applied extensive financial and political pressure to other countries in an effort to force them into aiding us in our 'war' on terror -- which to many countries looks more like us playing the role of terrorists rather than the role of victims. Our international support is in the gutter.

We've effectively fulfilled Bin Laden's prophecy of an over-reaching, viscious, violent, evil, imperialistic, satanic nation. We've boosted recruitment numbers in Iraq, and trained the next generation of America haters with live-fire exercises against our military, losing many soldiers in the process. We've inspired Al Qaida and the Taliban to rise up and fight us again in Afghanistan. We've played right into his hands.

So of course he's going to support Bush politically. The Bush Administration's domestic and foreign policy agenda in the name of counter-terrorism is the most efficient tool in Bin Ladens recruitment arsenal.

The Republicans will tell you this:

The terrorists hate our freedom. They want to kill all of us, regardless of whether or not you support the war on terror and the occupation in Iraq. We fight them overseas so that we don't fight them here. We try our hardest to get cooperation from foreign nations because we're so passionate about combating terrorism and violence and oppression. The ends justify the means -- and our ends are glorious. Bin Laden wants us to sit back and relax. He wants us to be on the defensive; to be smug. It makes his base more brazen in their attacks, that's how we got to 9/11 in the first place.

So of course Bin Laden supports the Democrats. We're killing his soldiers and disrupting his fun with our war on terror, and the Democrats want to put an end to all our hard work.

My personal opinion is that both have elements of truth. But the current strategy doesn't work, and most military strategists, counter-terrorism strategists, and terrorism scholars will tell you that it doesn't work, and has never worked in all of human history. Bush lacks the empirical evidence to support his claims. So I tend to side with the former.

But in many ways, I think Bush has fallen victim to Bin Laden's political acumen. Have any of you read the Ladenese Espistles? He clearly lays out his agenda, and states the goals of his Pan-Arabic conquest. He's a brilliant tactician who was educated by the brother of Qutb, the Egyptian founder of the Islamist movement half a century ago to combat western colonialism. Anybody who's read the Epistles can tell that recruitment is his primary goal, and when contrasted against his statements to the press, it becomes evident that he's playing people who take his public words seriously for suckers to further his Pan-Arabic agenda.